APC leaders to meet next week to decide Oshiomhole fate as governors push for his removal

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is to meet with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) next week to decide the fate of party chairman Adams Oshiomhole who many governors want removed for refusing to endorse their candidates in recent primaries.

 

Earlier this week, Mr Oshiomhole was grilled by Department of State Security (DSS) detectives for several hours over allegations levelled against him by some aggrieved party members. Over the last few weeks, the APC has been wracked with internal divisions as a result of its divisive gubernatorial and parliamentary primary elections.

 

Across many states, there were complaints about some candidates being imposed on the party, especially by governors who ignored the results of the primaries and proceeded to forward the names of their preferred candidates to APC headquarters in Abuja. Some governors are also unhappy with the party chairman for refusing to rubber stamp their candidate selections and even met in Abuja to plot his removal.

 

In a bid to address the crisis, President Buhari, vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo and several party leaders will meet next week to determine the fate of Mr Oshiomhole. One prominent party leader said that as a precursor to this meeting, national leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and Mr Oshiomhole, met in Paris on Thursday.

 

 Their meeting centred on the growing plot by aggrieved party members especially governors to remove Mr Oshiomhole from office. Asiwaju Tinubu is one of the party stalwarts backing Mr Oshiomhole.

 

An APC source said, “Tinubu and Oshiomhole met in Paris on Thursday over attempts by governors and some members of the national working committee (NWC) to remove the party chairman. You will recall that it was Asiwaju who paved the way for the emergence of Oshiomhole as the chairman when Chief Oyegun wanted a tenure extension.

 

“Now that he has come under probe by the DSS and is being asked to step aside, he has run to Tinubu to save him. It remains unclear what their strategy will be to put a stop to the probe,” the party source added.

 

Some aggrieved governors are said to have begun reaching out to NWC members to ask Mr Oshiomhole to step aside pending the outcome of the DSS probe. Apart from President Buhari, those expected at the Abuja meeting include Professor Osinbajo, Asiwaju Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu and Prince Tony Momoh.

 

 “The fact that Oshiomhole is under investigation for allegedly collecting money from aspirants is bad for the image of the APC government which claims to be fighting corruption. It is for this reason that the NWC members are being asked to push for the suspension of the APC chairman pending the outcome of the probe.

 

"The president’s body language and actions in the coming days will determine Oshiomhole’s fate. For now, we are still considering it but we don’t want to make any hasty decision until we are sure that we have the president’s backing,” another party source added.

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